A general procedure to identify indicators for evaluation and monitoring of nature-based solution projects.

In the last years, the idea of using natural elements or nature-based solutions (NbS) to mitigate the impacts of cities on climate, biodiversity and citizens' health became more popular in research and practice. Nevertheless, there are currently uncertainties in finding and selecting appropriate criteria and indicators for monitoring and evaluating the impact and performance of NbS and its co-creation processes. This paper proposes an easy-to-use and structured procedure for selecting appropriate criteria and indicators for monitoring and evaluating any kind of NbS project. The user is guided step by step in selecting meaningful metrics. The procedure is tested using a real case study from the Horizon 2020 research project CLEVER Cities as an example. The test shows that by following the indicated procedure, the criteria and indicator selection process is speeded up and reproducible.

Life cycle inventory data for power production from sugarcane press-mud.

This data article is associated with the research article "Technical and environmental analysis on the power production from residual biomass using hydrogen as energy vector". This paper shows the procedure to calculate the Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) of the foreground system to perform the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of the power production from sugarcane press-mud. Said process encompasses four main stages: i) bioethanol production; ii) bioethanol purification; iii) syngas production and purification; and iv) power production. Additionally, other processes such as biomethane production and manufacturing of catalyst were included. Foreground data related to bioethanol production was gathered from experimental procedures at lab-scale. While foreground data, concerning the other processes such as bioethanol purification, syngas production and purification, power production, and biomethane production, was built by using material and energy flows obtained from Aspen Plus®. Lastly, LCI of the catalyst manufacturing was built based on literature review and the approach stated by Ecoinvent. All the inventories are meaningful to carry out future environmental assessments involving sustainable energy systems based on bioethanol, biomethane, or hydrogen.